Maharashtra Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Chandrakant Patil on Wednesday hit back at senior leader Eknath Khadse and asked him to play the role of a consultant for the party.
Disgruntled senior BJP leader Eknath Khadse earlier accused the party leadership in Maharashtra of ignoring him and alleged that denying him a ticket for the MLC polls was a conspiracy by certain leaders. The elections to the legislative council in Maharashtra will be held on May 21 on nine vacancies.
The BJP fielded four candidates for the MLC polls and denied ticket to Eknath Khadse and other senior party leaders including Pankaja Munde, Vinod Tawde and Chandrashekar Bawankule.
“Eknath Khadse is a senior leader of Maharashtra BJP. He can serve as a consultant to the party’s current leadership,” Patil said while speaking to a Marathi news channel.
Earlier, Khadse said that he had served the party for 40 years and questioned the contribution of Chandrakant Patil in expanding BJP across Maharashtra. The sulking leader also alleged that he was being sidelined and ignored by the state leadership after he was denied ticket for the MLC polls.
“This is a conspiracy against people like me who had served the party for 40 years and other by some 4-5 state leaders who are misleading central leadership,” Eknath Khadse said while stating that he was trying to contact Devendra Fadnavis to know why he and others were denied ticket for the MLC.
Reacting to this, Patil questioned Khadse on singling out Devendra Fadnavis, former Chief Minister of Maharashtra and Leader of Opposition (LoP) in state legislative assembly.
“When Khadse had denied tickets to some BJP leaders previously to get nominations for his daughter-in-law and son for Lok Sabha as well as MLC seats, what did he tell those people who were denied the opportunity?” Patil said.
The differences between Khadse and Fadnavis started after the former was made to resign as the Revenue Minister over corruption allegations in 2016. Khadse had also intended to contest the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly polls from his home ground Muktainagar in Jalgaon district but the BJP fielded his daughter Rohini Khadse instead.
Also Read - Appropriate All Gold Lying With Religious Trusts: Congress Leader Prithiviraj Chavan Tells Centre
Share
Tweet
